Letter To The Editor

CHATHAM COUNTY DRUG COURT

I would like to thank your editorial staff and senior reporter Jan Skutch
for the excellent and continuing coverage of the development and the
start-up of the Chatham County Drug Court. It has been a long, slow process.

Many meetings with mental health professionals, law enforcement, other
judges, court staff, jail personnel and the district attorney's office were
held. A final public meeting was held Jan. 20, in which then-Chief Justice
Robert Benham and Judge Amanda Williams addressed a crowd of over 200 people.

However, I would like to set the record straight regarding a portion of
your Oct. 4 editorial, "New weapon against crime." All aforementioned
meetings, travel by court staff to other drug court jurisdictions and
attendance at various training conferences were financed with funds
provided by a grant from the Council of Superior Court Judges and state
funds provided by my district office.

Present funding for the operation of the drug court is from a federal grant
administered by the Governor's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. We
applied for the smaller grant when we learned that our initial grant
through the Department of Justice's Office of Drug Court Programs had not
been funded.

The bottom line is that neither Chatham County nor the City of Savannah has
contributed to the drug court. In all fairness, though, they have not been
asked -- yet. We will be requesting funding from both in next year's budget
request. Grants are great for establishing new worthwhile projects, but
without local support and funding their futures are somewhat doomed.We do
not intend to stop there.

If the community does not support a project, it is doomed to failure. At
some point, the drug court will seek non-profit status. That will allow us
to accept contributions from the public and private sector.

You also mentioned the problem of the difficulty in getting reliable
statistics concerning drug courts. One reason, of course, is the relative
newness of the concept. Despite the newness of the programs, there are some
statistics and facts available:

* Sixty-eight percent of local probationers test positive for drugs.
* In the Brunswick Drug Court, 2 percent of the participants test positive.
* Nationally, fewer than 5 percent of probationers are in an intensive
supervised program.
* Drug courts provide the most comprehensive supervision and control of
drug-using offenders' behavior while on probation and living in our
communities.
* Regular probationers are drug-tested monthly.
* Drug court participants are randomly tested twice weekly.
* Drug court participants go before a judge once a week.
* A retention rate in drug court treatment programs is approximately 70
percent.
* Nationally, a year of drug court costs $1,800 to $4,400 per participant.
That compares to at least $20,000 per year to jail a defendant.

I admit, as your article proclaimed, that drug courts are no silver bullet,
but how many blanks have we shot at drug abuse in the past? I also admit
that there are some folks in our society who do not deserve another chance.
They are the ones we should reserve jail and prison space for.

As of Oct. 2, Chatham County has an official drug court headed by Judge
James Bass. It was two years in the making and a lot of folks helped make
it a reality.

Our drug court, in order to be successful, will need community support. The
folks that succeed will be starting new lives and will need jobs, an
education and new life skills to become productive, tax-paying citizens.

Danny DeLoach
Superior Court Administrator